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The Graduate School

Good Science, Bad Science: Getting Biomedical Research Right

Wed. Jan. 24, 2018      7:30 p.m.

Kane Hall 120

Richard Harris

Richard Harris, NPR Science Correspondent

In many cases, initial research results trumpeted as medical advances do not stand the test of time. A longtime NPR science correspondent, Harris talks about the “reproducibility crisis” — how needless errors are slowing progress in the quest for better treatments and cures.

Admission is free. Advance registration is required.

This lecture has reached capacity. As a courtesy, the Graduate School will offer standby seating on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 6:45 pm in Kane Hall. Any reserved seats not taken by 7:15 pm will be offered to our guests in the standby line.

Produced in partnership with the University of Washington Graduate School.


Richard Harris has covered science, medicine and the environment for National Public Radio since 1986. His award-winning work includes reports in 2010 that revealed the US Government was vastly underestimating the amount of oil spilling from the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. He also shared a Peabody award with colleague Rebecca Perl for their 1994 reports about the tobacco industry’s secret documents, which showed that company scientists were well aware of the hazards of smoking. He has traveled the world reporting on climate change, for which the American Geophysical Union honored him with a Presidential Citation for Science and Society. In 2014, he turned his attention back to biomedical research and came to realize how the field was suffering. Too many scientists were chasing too little funding. That led him to take a year-long sabbatical at Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes to research and write his first book, “Rigor Mortis.”